Two of today's maverick
authors
on anomalous experience present a perception-altering and
intellectually thrilling analysis of why the paranormal is real, but
radically different from what is conventionally
understood. Whitley Strieber and Jeffrey J. Kripal team up on this
unprecedented and intellectually vibrant new framing of inexplicable
events and experiences.

Whitley Strieber is one of today's most
influential and bestselling authors of both science fiction and
extraordinary fact. He is best known for his groundbreaking memoir Communion,
which popularized the alien-abduction thesis, as well as his many
bestselling novels, such as The Wolfen and The Hunger.
These and other of Strieber's books have formed the basis for many
popular movies, including The Day After Tomorrow.

Jeffrey J. Kripal is the J. Newton Rayzor
professor of religion at Rice University. He is the author of six
books, including Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion,
Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the Sacred, and
Mutants and Mystics: Science Fiction, Superhero Comics, and the
Paranormal.

Review:

Whitley Strieber and
Jeffrey J. Kripal have produced a book together of a dialogue between
them about the nature of unexplainable events and fringe phenomenon
titled The Super Natural: A New Vision of the Unexplained. The
paperback edition adds another, even more evocative, subtitle Why
the Unexplained is Real.
Kripal is a professor of comparative religions—and a brilliant mind and
wonderful writer. Kripal places Strieber's personal experiences, and
his extensive research as a spokesperson and lightning rod for the
abduction experience, in the larger context of mystical and
transpersonal visionary experience. Their conclusion is that what we
call "supernatural" is perfect natural, but our science and
understanding of reality hasn't evolved enough to understand the nature
that includes it.

Reviewed by Toby Johnson, author of Finding
Your Own True Myth: What I Learned from Joseph Campbell

Toby Johnson, PhDis
author of nine books: three non-fiction books that apply the wisdom of
his
teacher and "wise old man," Joseph Campbell to modern-day social and
religious problems, four gay genre novels that dramatize spiritual
issues at the heart of gay identity, and two books on gay men's
spiritualities and the mystical experience of homosexuality and editor
of a collection of "myths" of gay men's consciousness.

Johnson's book
GAY
SPIRITUALITY: The Role of Gay Identity in the Transformation of
Human Consciousness won a Lambda Literary Award in 2000.

His GAY
PERSPECTIVE: Things Our [Homo]sexuality Tells Us about the Nature
of God and the Universe was nominated for a Lammy in 2003. They
remain
in
print.

FINDING
YOUR OWN TRUE MYTH: What I Learned from Joseph Campbell: The Myth
of the Great Secret III tells the story of Johnson's learning the
real nature of religion and myth and discovering the spiritual
qualities of gay male consciousness.